7. Gregory Crewdon
People in Crewdson's work avoid eye contact, but seethe misery, jealousy, anger or
plain old confoundedness. They stand in the rain transfixed, or wander aimlessly or
get up to no good in the woods at night. They have horrible times at home and in
hotel rooms. You don't need a second glimpse to tell that this is small-town America,
whose dark side has become a cinematic and literary cliche.
One wonders, though, if there is any other side but dark to the American psyche. It
isn't surprising that everyone in Crewdson's images is somehow lost, bereft,
misplaced, tormented. We are already so familiar with this territory that one can't
even look at an old man crossing the street to the Oasis liquor store without
wondering what terrible troubles he's going to drown in a quart of Jim Beam; or if
that woman we glimpse through the lighted door of the Thrifty Bundle laundry is
planning her seventh divorce, or just a murder.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/apr/19/photography
16. The Miracle of Death, 2000 by Breda Beban
Beban’s husband, Hrovje Horvatic died in 1997, which
caused Beban to produce a series of images (other
images shown to the left) using the box that
contained her husband’s ashes. She photographed
this box in the different rooms of their home, which
still held her husbands possessions.
